75 Percent of U.S. Internet Audience Watched Online Video in July

comScore released its July 2008 data from the comScore Video Metrix service, reporting that Americans viewed more than 11.4 billion videos for a total duration of 558 million hours during the month.

Google Sites Maintains Dominant Position - In July, Google Sites once again ranked as the top U.S. video property with more than 5 billion videos viewed (representing a 44 percent share of the online video market), with YouTube.com accounting for more than 98 percent of all videos viewed at the property. Fox Interactive Media ranked second with 446 million videos (3.9 percent), followed by Microsoft Sites with 282 million (2.5 percent) and Yahoo! Sites with 269 million (2.4 percent). Hulu ranked eighth with 119 million videos, representing 1 percent of all videos viewed.

Top U.S. Online Video Properties* by Videos Viewed July 2008 Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations
Property	Videos (000)	Share (%) of Videos
Total Internet	11,425,890	100.0
Google Sites	5,044,053	44.1
Fox Interactive Media	445,682	3.9
Microsoft Sites	282,748	2.5
Yahoo! Sites	269,452	2.4
Viacom Digital	246,413	2.2
Disney Online	186,700	1.6
Turner Network	171,065	1.5
Hulu	119,357	1.0
AOL LLC	95,106	0.8
CBS Corporation	69,316	0.6

*Rankings based on video content sites; excludes video server networks. Online video includes both streaming and progressive download video.

More than 142 million U.S. Internet users watched an average of 80 videos per viewer in July. Google Sites also attracted the most viewers (92.1 million), who watched an average of 55 videos per person. Fox Interactive attracted the second most viewers (54.9 million), followed by Yahoo! Sites (37.6 million) and Microsoft Sites (32.6 million).

Top U.S. Online Video Properties* by Unique Viewers July 2008 Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations
Property	Unique Viewers (000)	Average Videos per Viewer
Total Internet	142,507	80.2
Google Sites	92,130	54.7
Fox Interactive Media	54,845	8.1
Yahoo! Sites	37,610	7.2
Microsoft Sites	32,640	8.7
AOL LLC	22,959	4.1
Viacom Digital	21,142	11.7
Turner Network	18,666	9.2
Disney Online	15,899	11.7
Time Warner - Excl. AOL	15,345	3.2
Amazon Sites	11,690	2.5

*Rankings based on video content sites; excludes video server networks. Online video includes both streaming and progressive download video.

Other notable findings from July 2008 include:

• 75 percent of the total U.S. Internet audience viewed online video.
• Americans spent a total of 558 million hours watching online video during the month.
• The average online video viewer watched 235 minutes of video.
• 91 million viewers watched 5 billion videos on YouTube.com (54.8 videos per viewer).
• 51.4 million viewers watched 400 million videos on MySpace.com (7.8 videos per viewer).
• The duration of the average online video was 2.9 minutes.

Package holidays close to extinction as more travel companies merge

Last updated at 17:52pm on 19.03.07

As the era of the package holiday comes to a close, tour operator First Choice is merging with German company Tui

The traditional 'sun, sea and sand' package holiday faces extinction with a disastrous fall in sales that has forced Britain's tour operators to merge or die.

First Choice is being taken over by Thomson, which is owned by TUI of Germany, it was revealed today.

Separately, the German-owned Thomas Cook is in the throes of merging with MyTravel, which is based in North West England.

The mergers will see the loss of hundreds of jobs and travel agent shops from high street as more people book their holidays via the internet or Teletext.

The consolidation of Britain's package holiday giants from four to just two comes amid a 14 per cent slump in sales in just four years.

During the package holiday hey-day of the late 1990s more than 20m package were being sold every year but this year it is likely to be less than 16m.

The industry is haemorrhaging bookings as families and others switch to putting together their own holidays with budget airlines and their own hotel bookings.

As a result just 31 per cent of people now take a package holiday, which is the lowest ratio in 30 years.

Industry analysts report that the only way package holiday firms can survive on what are very thin profit margins is to merge.

Separately, they are also changing what they offer, moving away from the traditional sun, sea and sangria of the Spanish costas and Greek islands to long-haul trips to the Far East and the USA.

MyTravel, for example, has begun offering packages to China and even a round-the-world holiday in 23 days, starting at £4,499.

Travel industry analyst, Jeremy Skidmore, said: "We are seeing a sea-change in consumer behaviour. The bottom line is that people are turning their backs on package holidays and doing their own thing.

"The package holiday, once a desirable goal, is now something that millions of people are turning their backs on.

"It is very sad for traditionalists, but tastes have changes. I guess it is what people call progress."

He said travellers are now far more independent and no longer value the hand-holding offered by a package holiday, including reps and organised excursions.

"Going to Spain or the Canary Islands doesn't hold any mystery any more. People are happy to book their own flights and find their own way round," he said.

Mr Skidmore said: "It has become increasingly difficult to make a good profit out of selling a package holiday. The firms have had to cut prices to sell them, but prices have become ridiculously low. "It is no exaggeration that at some points of the year they are selling holidays at a loss, particularly when you get down to deals of £99 a head.

"There just isn't room any more for four package holiday firms when an increasing number of bookings are made through the internet. It is a case of merge or slowly die."

Mr Skidmore warned that prices are likely to go up, although this will be capped by the competition from budget airlines.

The British Market Research Bureau has charted a decline of the package holiday.

It says sales have fallen by 14 per cent in four years. The proportion of people making their own plans is up ten per cent to 45 per cent over the same period.

It has registered a 300,000 drop in British visitors to the Canary Islands in four years.

By contrast, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand have all seen big increases in visitor numbers as people venture further.

A BMRB spokesman said: "Online holiday booking has seen a dramatic increase and the ease of booking one's holiday online makes it a cheaper and quicker alternative than visiting a travel agent.

"With Britain embracing low cost airlines, it is now possible for people to visit alternative holiday destinations such as eastern Europe.

"Whereas people previously were holidaying in Spain and Portugal, now people have more choice and may opt to travel to Poland, Estonia or Latvia instead."

Thomson has been the UK's leading tour operator since 1974 and has about one third of the UK market. Its budget airline, Thomsonfly, operates to more than 80 destinations.

The company has more than 650 travel agent shops and sells around five million holidays and flights a year. Its brands include Simply Travel, Headwater Holidays, Crystal Holidays, Thomson Ski and Snowboarding, and Jetsave. Thomson's parent company TUI will own 51 per cent of the new business, while First Choice will make up the remaining 49 per cent. The new holiday company will be based in the UK. First Choice has been operating in various forms since 1973 and started under the name of Owners Abroad.

The companies claim the merger will generate savings of £100 million a year, with much of this likely to come with the closure of holiday sales call centres and the merger of administration.

Announcing the deal, Tui and First Choice, admitted that travel tastes had changed.

In a joint statement, they said: "The leisure travel environment has changed significantly over the last few years as consumers demand flexibility and choice, seek new life experiences and look to access travel content through a number of points of sale, most notably the internet."

Text Messages Rule Mobile Ads

Simple ad formats reaching the widest audience

Mobile advertising has been the next big thing for a while now. But although text messaging is popular among young adults, the 160-character format has yet to become a mass influencer.

Still, consumers who respond to mobile ads are most likely to engage with text messages, according to a survey of mobile users ages 15 and older in the US by the Direct Marketing Association (DMA). Seven out of 10 respondents to the DMA's "Mobile Marketing: Consumer Perspectives" study who had acted on mobile ads said that text messages for a product or service had prompted their actions.

That was more than three times as many as responded to a mobile Web offer or coupon.

But even text messaging is not about to replace other marketing mainstays such as e-mail or direct mail. In fact, only 1% of US Internet users surveyed in February 2008 by ExactTarget picked text messaging as their channel of choice for opt-in communications. Instead, the medium is better-suited for targeting specific audiences, and as part of multichannel campaigns.

Text messaging may not dominate mobile advertising as more mobile users with sophisticated phones and data plans come into the fold (think iPhone and its ilk). Yet the simplicity and compatibility of texting is likely to ensure its long-term appeal in the same way text-based e-mail has remained viable.

In the meantime, the bigger issue is when mobile advertising will become a common campaign tactic. For most marketers and advertisers, mobile is still only getting experimental budget at most.

Mobile advertising's toddler status was reflected in a February 2008 iMedia Connection survey of US online marketers. Although about one-quarter of respondents said they were open-minded enough to decide on a case-by-case basis whether to use mobile ads this year, more than two-thirds said they would do no more than dabble in the channel.

Still, "excitement about mobile advertising is building," said John du Pre Gauntt, senior analyst at eMarketer. "Even those who currently discount mobile do so from the perspective of timing or tactics, not so much because of the inherent attraction of the idea."

American Airlines ditches Kayak

American Airlines is about to pull its airline listings out of Kayak and is considering doing the same with Orbitz. If it does so, other airlines such as Continental and Northwest may follow suit.

Airlines don’t like the booking sites because they have to pay them a referral fee for every ticket they sell, as opposed to capturing the full fare when travelers book on their individual sites. Even though that only amounts to a few dollars per ticket, every dollar counts to the troubled airlines?especially now with fuel prices going sky-high and the consumer spending going down.

American Airlines has a particular beef with Kayak because it tends to show AA flights through its partnership with Orbitz instead of directly from American. That means American has to pay a double tax, once to Kayak and once to Orbitz. (The deal between Kayak and Orbitz, charges the competing CEO, was meant to drive up traffic numbers on Kayak as it was potentially seeking an IPO prior to raising $200 million instead last December).

The decision to sever ties with Kayak supposedly has already been made. The only question is whether Orbitz can salvage its relationship with the airline. This should strengthen competing travel sites, especially newer ones that link directly to the airlines like Mobissimo and Yapta.

Travel sites receive 50% of visits from travel media & referral sites

According to a new PhoCusWright study, just over half of the top 200 travel Web sites in February 2008 were booking Web sites. The remaining were referral and media sites, which attract travel shoppers with expert and traveler-generated reviews, metasearch capabilities, and maps of travel destinations.

Travel bookings are no longer the whole story as advertising and referral-based business models gain ground.

Just over half of the top 200 travel Web sites in February 2008 were booking Web sites.

The remaining were referral and media sites, which attract travel shoppers with expert and traveler-generated reviews, metasearch capabilities, and maps of travel destinations.

Travel industry research authority PhoCusWright and Hitwise partnered to track and analyze the online travel space.

The resulting report, Search, Shop, Buy: Inside The Tangled Web of Online Travel uses traffic data from Hitwise to determine how Travel 2.0, the Long Tail and search are affecting the online travel space, tracing the trends that are emerging throughout the travel search, shopping and buying processes.

“Search and shopping sites are having a major impact on the travel category, and their power is expected to grow as the slowing economy prompts travelers to spend even more time searching for travel deals,” said Cathy Schetzina, technology analyst for PhoCusWright. “This trend underlines the need for travel suppliers and intermediaries to target search marketing and online advertising efforts based on a clear understanding of online travel shopping patterns.”

Also among the report’s findings about the trends impacting online travel:

- While travelers continue to report shopping at an online travel agency site and then switching to a supplier site to book (and vice versa), online travel agencies and suppliers in fact lose more downstream traffic to competitors of the same type of site.

- Metasearch sites were initially hailed as a boon to suppliers, but online travel agencies are in fact the top beneficiaries of these sites.

- Despite the fact that two general social networks rank within the top 10 sites on the Web overall, only two travel-specific social networks appear within the top 200 travel Web sites.

The report also analyzes fast-growing travel Web sites based on increase in visits year over year, search engine traffic to the travel category, including search term patterns, and lifestyle descriptions for online travel shoppers.

Text Messaging Huge with Young Adults

But no mass influence yet for text marketing

Text messaging is especially popular with US adults ages 18 to 34, according to Universal McCann's 2008 "Media in Mind" study. Respondents from that age group sent an average of 13 text messages every week.

In last year's survey, nearly one-half of all US adults said they had never sent a text message. This year only 41% said so. Among 18 to 34 year-olds surveyed this year, just 22% had never sent a text message, down from the 38% the prior year.

"The great unwashed—those people who have never sent a text message—is getting smaller all the time," said Graeme Hutton, senior vice president at Universal McCann, in a MediaPost article.

Text messaging is still new for many marketers, as evidenced by a February 2008 ExactTarget study. The proportion of Internet users surveyed who owned a mobile phone and had made a purchase after receiving a text message was a paltry 6%. That percentage was higher among younger users, but still mostly in the single digits.

Such low numbers could be interpreted to mean that text messages are not a very effective way to market, but they might also just reflect that such marketing is still relatively rare.

A December 2007 BIGresearch study of US Internet users found similarly low text message influence: 6.4% of respondents said they had bought electronics because of text messages, and still fewer said they had influenced purchases of other types of goods.

If mobile marketing is to move beyond the experimental budget stage, text messaging is likely to be part of the mix, in part since the messages lend themselves to existing terminology and benchmarks, according to John du Pre Gauntt, senior analyst at eMarketer.

"Mobile messaging is tailor-made for getting mobile marketing past the early adopter stage and into the mainstream," Mr. Gauntt said. "Messaging has a clear currency—that is, messages sent, received, opened or acted upon—for all parts of the mobile marketing chain to use."

This is just a cool way to do a recruitment drive:

Hotel Chain Sites Powering Ahead

Compete.com, June 24, 2008

Compared to a year ago, consumer traffic to hotel chain websites is growing strongly with gains being made at every major provider. Despite concerns of a slowing economy impacting the lodging sector, there are more online hotel shoppers than ever before, providing a healthy and growing channel for the efficient distribution of inventory.

The average growth rate heading into the summer for hotel supplier websites versus a year ago was an impressive 26%. Aside from a few unusual months, such as a difficult February for Intercontinental, every chain is posting solid growth. Leading the pack in May was Hilton at +34% compared to a year ago, and lagging was Choice at +10%.

Many of the hotel websites are converting visitors more effectively than they were in early 2007. Indexed against that period, conversion rates in May 2008 are averaging 1.05x growth. While Starwood, Hilton and Intercontinental are posting the strongest gains, Best Western is consistently under indexed against its position a year earlier. At a 0.8 conversion rate index, Best Western is lagging each of its major competitors in improving the efficiency of its online channel.

Although economic uncertainty is thought to be weighing on the minds of consumers, signs of strength still remain in online hotel distribution. Website audiences at leading hotel chains are powering ahead and are up significantly from year ago levels. Additionally, select competitors have managed to improve their conversion rates despite the growing volume of visitors. Sites such as Best Western, however, have seen their conversion rates decline and must make it a priority to optimize their online channel performance. If not in place already, competitive benchmarking against key rivals will be critical to making this a success.

The Aim of Behavioral Targeting

Why isn’t behavioral targeting a hit with advertisers?

Behavioral targeting offers many potential benefits:

• For advertisers, effective behavioral targeting leads to ad campaigns that are more likely to sway their audience.
• For publishers, it can mean making more money from undersold or unsold ad inventory.
• For the public, it means the ad-supported Internet might become more relevant.

The promise of behavioral targeting is huge, but overdue.

eMarketer estimates that US spending for behaviorally targeted online advertising will reach only $775 million in 2008.

"The growth of behaviorally targeted online advertising has been delayed by incomplete development of technology, brand marketers that prefer to have their ads appear with relevant content and concerns over violating consumer privacy," says David Hallerman, senior analyst at eMarketer and author of the new report, Behavioral Targeting: Marketing Trends. "But a number of things are changing."

In fact, eMarketer projects that behaviorally targeted ad spending will reach $4.4 billion by the end of 2012.

Behavioral targeting segments the audience based on observed and measured data, such as the pages or sites users visit, content viewed, search queries entered, ads clicked, information share on social networks and products placed in online shopping carts. This data is combined with the time, length and frequency of visits.

"Recency counts a lot, too," says Mr. Hallerman, "data from two weeks ago is far less accurate at predicting interest than that from two days ago."

Behavioral targeting is getting increasing attention from advertisers, publishers, the public, politicians and mainstream media. For now, though, it contributes little to total US Internet ad spending—only 3% for 2008.

"When pegged against the display online ad formats that are typically used for behavioral targeting, however," says Mr. Hallerman, "the importance of behavioral targeting to non-search advertising growth becomes clearer."

Nearly one in 10 content-site ad dollars will flow from behaviorally targeted advertising in 2008. That will rise to roughly one in four by the end of 2012.

"It is unclear how much display ad spending will increase behaviorally targeted ad spending, in contrast to how much behavioral targeting capabilities will increase display ad spending," says Mr. Hallerman.

Guests' videos star in hotels' online ads

By Roger Yu, USA TODAY

Aaron Schwartz, an executive recruiter in Fairfax, Va., wanted a nice memento of his vacation in Aruba.

Using his video camera, he filmed his stay at the Marriott Renaissance Ocean Suites last June — shots of the beautiful beach, flamingos along the water. He uploaded the video to his MySpace page and YouTube.

He then received a call from the resort's general manager, who liked the video so much that he offered Schwartz a free seven-day stay. He returned two months later and composed another video, even though the resort didn't ask him to.

Eager to capture the attention of Internet-savvy guests, hotels are becoming more serious about using online videos as a marketing tool. They're encouraging and monitoring guests' videos of their stays. They're creating their own YouTube channels and other video content to showcase their properties and to launch new brands.

It's a dramatic shift from traditional marketing, where communication flowed from hotels to customers. The new strategy aims to get customers to talk among themselves on sites such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, promoting word-of-mouth advertising.

"The center of gravity has shifted. We can't be seen as controlling the content. Now we have to participate in the conversation," says Kathleen Matthews, Marriott's communications chief.

Hotel videos fall broadly into two categories:

•Customers' input. Vacationers' videos posted online have been around for years. But hotel companies are more proactive in seeking more than room footage. Last year, Best Western asked customers to submit a 30-second video on why they're in "desperate need of a vacation." Holiday Inn Express invited popular YouTube comedian Kevin Nalty to help produce an online show about the chain. Sheraton also is urging guests to upload videos about their experiences to its website.

•Traveler information. Hotels also are producing their own content and inviting bloggers to link them on their sites. Starwood Hotels launched Spg.tv, a site with 50 hours of videos featuring the destinations where they have properties.

InterContinentalVideo.com is similar, with episodes of InterContinental concierges worldwide highlighting their hotels and points of interests in each city. This summer, Best Western will launch its YouTube channel, which will contain virtual tours, guest travelogues and classic company commercials.

To be sure, much of hotel-produced content involves commercials that are tailored for an online audience. Marriott hired David Elsewhere, an online personality known for his pop dancing, to film a YouTube commercial about TownePlace Suites.

"He has a following," Matthews says. "We can bring his following to our brand."